Facebook Competitor Diaspora Revealed

I just received an email from someone complaining about a dating software platform vendor. Right after that I read that the open-source Facebook platform Diaspora launched. Immediately after Diaspora was announce earlier this year they put up link to crowdsource some funding and got $200,000 right quick.

More at TechCrunch.

Zero members vs. 500 million at Facebook is not the story, its that Diaspora could be like a distributed private NING. I’m all for a private social networks, tired of hiding stuff of Facebook that I don’t want mom to see. Too complicated and when you screw up your settings and get emails like “why are you naked at this thing called Burning Man?”

White label market is mature, not much room for new players, well maybe a fresh start in the US with better profile sharing features. SkaDate and Boonex have been advertising on this blog for years. I always wondered why other dating “software in a box” players would stop the backbiting and yelling at each other in the comments, and simply buy an ad here (hint hint).

Putting your name, reputation and a phone number out there to burnish your brand, and not being secretive and sketchy, is the way to go.

Dating software is not quite as mature as I’d like to see it, and the white label providers are slow to move compared to blog platform software and other more establish services. Moving forward, but still, there is no sense of urgency, which leads to people feeling ho-hum about white label platforms for the most part.

Hosted, ASP-style super-configurable dating platforms with no members is the perfect middle ground. Then do a deal with the competition and cross-promote, which is a lot cheaper and you’re not giving up a big chunk of your revenue. Am I crazy to think this?